Completed art installations by definition are successes. Whether they realized the total artistic vision is another viewpoint.
Park(ing) Day is a day where parking spaces are converted into parks. A nonprofit group, Rebar, started the event in San Francisco about 5 years ago. The idea has since spread to a couple of hundred cities across the globe. The Parks are to be noncommercial enterprises.
George decided to do the “Garden of Eden” complete with snakes, nudes, a tree, and apple slices to be offered to passersby. From the very beginning, George was aware that this installation would be successful on Castro Street (San Francisco’s premier gayborhood). However, Valencia Street is in District Six where George is campaigning for Supervisor. Valencia St. is stereotyped as somewhat of a hipster neighborhood. It’s not exactly as gay, Hispanic, or wealthy as surrounding neighborhoods, but has all those elements present with some “street people” thrown into the mixture. In hind sight, a structural weakness of the installation was that there was never enough foot traffic on Valencia Street for this installation to have wide impact.
Another disappointment with the installation was that none of the “Eves” showed up. One “Eve” has had a long history of either showing up very late or not at all when working with George. Another Eve told George three times that she wanted to do this. In fact, she suggested that George not use a live snake because that would make the display too realistic. On a larger scale, the non-presence of reliable women has been an “Achilles Heel” of this campaign and the general promotion of a Free Body Culture. Interestingly, the women don’t have to be young, fit, or pretty. There just needs to be the presence of women. George once did a nude walk with a 68 year-old, overweight, retired school teacher, with a nice grandmotherly smile and she was received by the public as well as any other woman that he has walked with.
Next year, barring a very pressing schedule conflict, George plans to set up this art installation on Castro Street where a pre-Eve Adam would work just fine.